Victoria Boyden, BA English & Film Studies

Needy Lesnicki and the May Queen: Gender & Genre in the 21st Century Horror Film

I aim to investigate horror's depictions of gender in the age of changing critical & popular
attitudes towards horror as a genre. The concept of 'elevated horror' has gained traction in
recent years, introducing a new ambiguity around the boundaries between horror and other
genres as well as the legitimacy of horror itself. Recent independent filmmaking has been
dissecting and remaking genre in noteworthy ways – production/distribution company A24
has produced and distributed the work of filmmakers such as Robert Eggers and Ari Aster,
whose horror films have centred female characters in narratives that depart from horror
convention. I am exploring the ways independent horror filmmaking in recent years has
diverged from horror conventions characterised by 20th century critics whose work
assesses horror as directing sympathies towards victims against aggressors; the existing
hermeneutics of horror do not allow for the changing alignments of sympathies and
viewpoints introduced in 21st century horror filmmaking, particularly in innovative
independent horror filmmaking that has made an outsize impact on current popular culture.
In this investigation, I aim to focus on films that fall beneath the horror umbrella but subvert
horror convention: Jennifer’s Body (2009), The Babadook (2014), The Witch (2015), and
Midsommar (2019).